In the past few weeks i have only seen about 6 kin active from the times i play. I have spent time with Mari & Eli doing some trait work, I can say Avion wont be back for awhile, maybe when MoM comes out he might. But i cant speak for him, well, i guess i just did.

I have spent time in grps and have had some ppl interested but when there is no one on to invite them in the kin, not much can be done. Alot of people dont want to go to a web site, sign up and wait to get in.

I was a guild leader from SWG, I and Avion had one of the largest on our server and we did it without a site. I think we need to invite and then let them make their way to the forums.

Rentor wrote:In the past few weeks i have only seen about 6 kin active from the times i play. I have spent time with Mari & Eli doing some trait work, I can say Avion wont be back for awhile, maybe when MoM comes out he might. But i cant speak for him, well, i guess i just did.

I have spent time in grps and have had some ppl interested but when there is no one on to invite them in the kin, not much can be done. Alot of people dont want to go to a web site, sign up and wait to get in.

I was a guild leader from SWG, I and Avion had one of the largest on our server and we did it without a site. I think we need to invite and then let them make their way to the forums.

The problem is though, the SSX is not a guild. It never has been and it never will be. We're a community of friends first and foremost, and the forums are integral to that community being able to come together and...well, communicate.

The problem is that groups in the past from MMOs have shown us that incorporating a policy of "Signup first, then let them come register on the forums" means that relatively few people ever do register on the forums, or only do so when there is an important issue being debated that they're poked to respond to and never come back again.
For that reason we moved to an approach of getting people to register and/or contribute first and I must say I for one am a lot happier with that approach.

I won't try to tell you how to run your group, as I feel that's your decision to take, but I would encouage you to find alternatives that still encourage forum usage. Inviting into a "Trial" pool first, and users are only moved out of that group if they prove the be willing to contribute to the community within two or three weeks maybe?

It's something that I feel you should discuss as a group if recruitment is becoming an issue, it's a careful balance between making things too awkward for the registree and too lax for the community as a whole.

Also, I should note that I've refrained from offering my opinion here as I feel it's a good idea to let you yourselves work out what happens to the group now, and sort out any restructuring necessary. You guys know the group best after all.
When you have chosen and/or promoted new Officers/Kin Leader then don't hesitate to let me or any other admin know though, and we'll give them all moderation privilages for this forum as usual

"Perhaps this is what I have always wished for since that day. The loss and destruction of all. That's right, one must destroy before creating. In that case, if my conscience becomes a hindrance to me, then I will simply erase it. I have no other choice but to move forward....therefore!" - Lelouch vi Britannia/Zero, Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch

Sorry for the extended absense from the forums and in-game, it looks like I missed a pretty decent discussion! Great to see everyone getting involved!

At this point I would like to request that the leadership roll for the SSX LOTRO Kin be transferred to someone like Eli, Al or Mari. We could vote on it if enough feel it is necessary. I just simply have too much bad stuff going on in my life to be reliably available in-game as a Kin Leader. I hope my status will change in the future but as with anything in life, who the heck knows. If I need to be kept as Assistant Leader (or is it Assistant TO the Leader?) I have no problem with that.

As far as old/inactive members having a say in what goes on in SSX LOTRO it is my opinion that all active and former members should have their thoughts and opinions considered when a decision is to be made. Since this is an extended friend network of people it would be wise to keep former members in the flow of our activities if not just for the chance we could lure the hapless souls back! I mean, we should value their opinion and learn from their past experiences..

Recruiting is one of those sticky wickets in a MMORPG. On the one hand you have the need to grow the Kin and on the other you have the difficulty of "screening" potential new recruits. One of the most common practices I have seen employed by various kins/guilds is to invite new members on a trial basis (usually about 2 weeks), make sure a few officers have a chance to fellow with them, make sure they post at least a short description of what they like about the game and any goals they may have on the forums (like a "getting to know me" thread, but nothing too personal) and then after a few weeks some officers and hopefully the leader get together and vote the recruit to active status. It is a bit of a drawn-out process and we are not a hard-core raiding/PVP Kin that only invites the best players but in this day and age you just never know what to expect in a virtually anonymous society. I mean heck, Bink was let in for crying out loud! Although I suspect kick-backs and behind the scenes shenanigans lead to his approval

I have to say I agree with Anubis- A guild may not need a website/forums to work, but the tool is already in place and it's already part of the SSX culture, in fact it's central to SSX' culture.

I had thought about requiring prospective SSX-Lotro members to create forum accounts to try to encourage them to join the community but didn't bring it up- in the end I'd hope it wouldn't just amount to unused forum accounts for folks who wouldn't use it anyways...

As far as officer status goes- that will be rearranged soon i'm sure, having just lost a couple of officers... I don't, however, think that a majority of the kin should be officers. The way we were working invites for a while is to run with people for a bit (the Lotro version of the contributing first part, i guess?) and if we liked them to then invite them, and inevitably in that time period an officer would be on to invite in-game. I ran with SSX for a month before joining (man you guys should have waited longer to find out what I'm really like!) and it provided the opportunity to get to know everyone beforehand & help with quests and build up the camaraderie that seems to be so central to SSX as a group...

I did institute the concept of recruits because we were pulling people into the fold without that process recently but it hasn't really been tested out yet... We do currently have 2 recruits but I haven't personally seen either online. I didn't attach a time limit to it, I figured I'd leave it up to the individual to get involved!

Ozgafen wrote:Sorry for the extended absense from the forums and in-game, it looks like I missed a pretty decent discussion! Great to see everyone getting involved!

At this point I would like to request that the leadership roll for the SSX LOTRO Kin be transferred to someone like Eli, Al or Mari. We could vote on it if enough feel it is necessary. I just simply have too much bad stuff going on in my life to be reliably available in-game as a Kin Leader. I hope my status will change in the future but as with anything in life, who the heck knows. If I need to be kept as Assistant Leader (or is it Assistant TO the Leader?) I have no problem with that.

As far as old/inactive members having a say in what goes on in SSX LOTRO it is my opinion that all active and former members should have their thoughts and opinions considered when a decision is to be made. Since this is an extended friend network of people it would be wise to keep former members in the flow of our activities if not just for the chance we could lure the hapless souls back! I mean, we should value their opinion and learn from their past experiences..

Recruiting is one of those sticky wickets in a MMORPG. On the one hand you have the need to grow the Kin and on the other you have the difficulty of "screening" potential new recruits. One of the most common practices I have seen employed by various kins/guilds is to invite new members on a trial basis (usually about 2 weeks), make sure a few officers have a chance to fellow with them, make sure they post at least a short description of what they like about the game and any goals they may have on the forums (like a "getting to know me" thread, but nothing too personal) and then after a few weeks some officers and hopefully the leader get together and vote the recruit to active status. It is a bit of a drawn-out process and we are not a hard-core raiding/PVP Kin that only invites the best players but in this day and age you just never know what to expect in a virtually anonymous society. I mean heck, Bink was let in for crying out loud! Although I suspect kick-backs and behind the scenes shenanigans lead to his approval

As a final note, I offer the following:

Coney Pie is MURDER!!!!

Tasty, tasty murder..

Ozzy! I should kick your elf arse! It's all cool. Glad you got a chance to see me throwing you out of office before it happened. My bad! Don't take my concern personally. You still a great elf in my book!